|
|
Enron Mail |
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: The Motley Fool <Fool@MotleyFool.com< X-To: benjamin.rogers@enron.com X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Benjamin_Rogers_Dec2000_2\Notes Folders\Discussion threads X-Origin: Rogers-B X-FileName: brogers.nsf _________________________________________________________________ B R E A K F A S T W I T H T H E F O O L Monday, November 27, 2000 benjamin.rogers@enron.com _________________________________________________________________ REGISTER TO BECOME A FOOL -- GET FREE STUFF! http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212086 _________________________________________________________________ Sponsored By: Mercedes C Class The New C from Mercedes-Benz. Luxury you've longed for. A price you can afford. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=212087 "Money is no match for holidays with good friends, though it can help foot the bill." -- Anonymous HEWLETT-PACKARD SETTLES GERMAN COPYRIGHT SUIT The computer giant will pay for each past and future CD burner sale. By Tom Jacobs Computer behemoth Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP) settled German copyright test case litigation Thursday. The company agreed to pay GEMA, Germany's top licensing entity, $1.54 for each compact disc (CD) burner sold since February 1998 and $5.16 for each future sale. A CD burner allows illegal copying of music off the Web and onto a personal CD. Industry experts estimate that $500 million is lost annually to CD pirating, with a total of 25 million pirated music files available online. Hewlett-Packard closed at $35.56 Friday, up 5.57% and 10% above its 52-week low of $32.63. GEMA sued Hewlett-Packard in May because it's the German market leader in CD burners. GEMA initially sought up to $12.90 per CD burner, now often available for under $200. Hewlett-Packard spokesperson Jeannette Weisschuh wouldn't estimate the cost to the company, but she noted that foreign online retailers would gain an advantage by selling cheaper CD burners -- without having to pay the fees. "This was a trial to send an example for the whole market," she said. "It's unfair to the consumers who have to pay more and unfair to the manufactures because it gives us a competitive disadvantage." Most countries have agencies similar to GEMA (the U.S. has ASCAP and BMI, for example), which collect license fees and pay them to copyright owners through recording houses and music distributors. Pre-digital-age copyright laws zapped makers of equipment such as tape recorders and video players that could be used to violate copyright laws, but now those laws have been expanded into a world of CD burners, computer printers, hard drives, and high-speed modems. With music industry estimates of $5 billion a year lost through bootlegging, other countries' licensing bodies are likely watching Germany and making their own plans. Last Friday, Rex Moore (TMF Orangeblood) covered developments in the U.S. with online music file-sharing company Napster, now in cahoots with -- get this -- German's media giant Bertelsmann. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212088 _________________________________________________________________ NEWS TO GO General Electric (NYSE: GE) ended speculation this morning by naming Jeffrey R. Immelt, currently president and CEO of GE Medical Systems, to succeed CEO Jack Welch when he retires at the end of 2001. Effective immediately, Immelt is GE's president and chairman-elect, and will serve on the GE board of directors and join Mr. Welch and Vice Chairmen Dennis D. Dammerman and Robert C. Wright as a member of the corporate executive office. E-tailer Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) website was down for 30 minutes the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said, "It was totally internal, it was a bug in the system that is now exterminated. It had nothing to do with holiday traffic." The system was back up by 9:30 am. After denying a possible merger with Gemstar-TV Guide (Nasdaq: GMST) last Tuesday, bookseller Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating on Friday would not rule it out, saying that talks between the two companies spanned a wide range of options. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212089 Troubled cable and telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T) stated it will purchase no more equipment for cable upgrades from Antec Corp. (Nasdaq: ANTC) or CommScope Inc. (NYSE: CTV) before next year. The two companies' shares plummeted more than 20 % Friday on the news. Shares of Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (NYSE: SFA), C-Cor.net Corp. (Nasdaq: CCBL), and Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT), which also sell cable TV equipment to AT&T, dropped on news they stopped shipments. AT&T is Harmonic's biggest customer, and its shares trade near a 52-week low due to continued losses and investor concerns over AT&T's health. Bloomberg reports that Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (NYSE: MWD) has abandoned plans to buy Japan's Nippon Global Securities, and instead will pursue its own retail offices in Japan. Many international banks and brokerage firms have targeted Japan, where most married households -- traditionally through the wives -- maintained their savings in low or negative interest Post Office accounts. Financial market liberalization -- the so-called Big Bang -- has allowed foreign companies recently to attack the Japanese securities market, known for requiring years of building personal relationships to achieve business success. _________________________________________________________________ EDITORS' PICK David Gardner expounds on the virtues of making your own investment decisions -- not just mimicking the Fool's. http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212090 _______________________________________________________________ -News & Commentary http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212091 -Fool Community http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212092 -Post of the Day http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212093 -Latest Fribble http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212094 -Latest Market Numbers http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212095 ____________________________________________________________ My Portfolio: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212096 My Discussion Boards: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212097 My Fool: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212098 Fool.com Home: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212099 My E-Mail Settings: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212100 Sponsored By: Mercedes C Class The New C from Mercedes-Benz. Luxury you've longed for. A price you can afford. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=212101 17 INDUSTRIES WORTH A LOOK See which industries our writers think will be hot next year with Industry Focus 2001. http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=212102 ARE YOU ENROLLED IN WIRELESS 201? Don't miss the sequel to the best-selling report on Soapbox.com http://www.lnksrv.com/m.asp?i=212103 FOOL DIRECT E-MAIL SERVICES Need to change your address or unsubscribe? You can also temporarily suspend mail delivery. Click here: http://www.fool.com/community/freemail/freemaillogin.asp?email=benjamin.rogers @enron.com< Have ideas about how we can improve the Fool Direct or new e-mail products you'd like to see? Try our discussion board: http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=212104 ____________________________________________________ © Copyright 2000, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. . MsgId: msg-32713-2000-11-27_9-12-03-3312386_2_Plain_MessageAddress.msg-09:16:17(11-27 -2000) X-Version: mailer-sender-master,v 1.84 X-Version: mailer-sender-daemon,v 1.84 Message-Recipient: benjamin.rogers@enron.com
|